President Lyndon B. Johnson's

Address at Johns Hopkins University:"Peace Without Conquest"

April 7, 1965

Mr. Garland, Senator Brewster, Senator Tydings, Members of
the congressional delegation, members of the faculty of Johns
Hopkins, student body, my fellow Americans:

Last week 17 nations sent their views to some two dozen countries
having an interest in southeast Asia. We are joining those 17
countries and stating our American policy tonight which we believe
will contribute toward peace in this area of the world.

I have come here to review once again with my own people the
views of the American Government.

Tonight Americans and Asians are dying for a world where each
people may choose its own path to change.

This is the principle for which our ancestors fought in the
valleys of Pennsylvania. It is the principle for which our sons
fight tonight in the jungles of Viet-Nam.

Viet-Nam is far away from this quiet campus. We have no territory
there, nor do we seek any. The war is dirty and brutal and difficult.
And some 400 young men, born into an America that is bursting
with opportunity and promise, have ended their lives on Viet-Nam's
steaming soil.

Why must we take this painful road?

Why must this Nation hazard its ease, and its interest, and
its power for the sake of a people so far away?

We fight because we must fight if we are to live in a world
where every country can shape its own destiny. And only in such
a world will our own freedom be finally secure.

This kind of world will never be built by bombs or bullets.
Yet the infirmities of man are such that force must often precede
reason, and the waste of war, the works of peace.

We wish that this were not so. But we must deal with the world
as it is, if it is ever to be as we wish.

THE NATURE OF THE CONFLICT

The world as it is in Asia is not a serene or peaceful place.

The first reality is that North Viet-Nam has attacked the independent
nation of South Viet-Nam. Its object is total conquest.

Of course, some of the people of South Viet-Nam are participating
in attack on their own government. But trained men and supplies,
orders and arms, flow in a constant stream from north to south.

This support is the heartbeat of the war.

And it is a war of unparalleled brutality. Simple farmers are
the targets of assassination and kidnapping. Women and children
are strangled in the night because their men are loyal to their
government. And helpless villages are ravaged by sneak attacks.
Large-scale raids are conducted on towns, and terror strikes in
the heart of cities.

The confused nature of this conflict cannot mask the fact that
it is the new face of an old enemy.

Over this war--and all Asia--is another reality: the deepening
shadow of Communist China. The rulers in Hanoi are urged on by
Peking. This is a regime which has destroyed freedom in Tibet,
which has attacked India, and has been condemned by the United
Nations for aggression in Korea. It is a nation which is helping
the forces of violence in almost every continent. The contest
in Viet-Nam is part of a wider pattern of aggressive purposes.

WHY ARE WE IN VIET-NAM ?

Why are these realities our concern? Why are we in South Viet-Nam
?

We are there because we have a promise to keep. Since 1954
every American President has offered support to the people of
South Viet-Nam. We have helped to build, and we have helped to
defend. Thus, over many years, we have made a national pledge
to he!p South Viet-Nam defend its independence.

And I intend to keep that promise.

To dishonor that pledge, to abandon this small and brave nation
to its enemies, and to the terror that must follow, would be an
unforgivable wrong.

We are also there to strengthen world order. Around the globe,
from Berlin to Thailand, are people whose well-being rests, in
part, on the belief that they can count on us if they are attacked.
To leave Viet-Nam to its fate would shake the confidence of all
these people in the value of an American commitment and in the
value of America's word. The result would be increased unrest
and instability, and even wider war.

We are also there because there are great stakes in the balance.
Let no one think for a moment that retreat from Viet-Nam would
bring an end to conflict. The battle would be renewed in one country
and then another. The central lesson of our time is that the appetite
of aggression is never satisfied. To withdraw from one battlefield
means only to prepare for the next. We must say in southeast Asia--as
we did in Europe--in the words of the Bible: "Hitherto shalt
thou come, but no further."

There are those who say that all our effort there will be futile--that
China's power is such that it is bound to dominate all southeast
Asia. But there is no end to that argument until all of the nations
of Asia are swallowed up.

There are those who wonder why we have a responsibility there.
Well, we have it there for the same reason that we have a responsibility
for the defense of Europe. World War II was fought in both Europe
and Asia, and when it ended we found ourselves with continued
responsibility for the defense of freedom.

OUR OBJECTIVE IN VIET-NAM

Our objective is the independence of South Viet-Nam, and its
freedom from attack. We want nothing for ourselves--only that
the people of South Viet-Nam be allowed to guide their own country
in their own way.

We will do everything necessary to reach that objective. And
we will do only what is absolutely necessary.

In recent months attacks on South Viet-Nam were stepped up.
Thus, it became necessary for us to increase our response and
to make attacks by air. This is not a change of purpose. It is
a change in what we believe that purpose requires.

We do this in order to slow down aggression.

We do this to increase the confidence of the brave people of
South Viet-Nam who have bravely borne this brutal battle for so
many years with so many casualties.

And we do this to convince the leaders of North Viet-Nam--and
all who seek to share their conquest--of a very simple fact: We
will not be defeated. We will not grow tired.

We will not withdraw, either openly or under the cloak of a
meaningless agreement.

We know that air attacks alone will not accomplish all of these
purposes. But it is our best and prayerful judgment that they
are a necessary part of the surest road to peace.

We hope that peace will come swiftly. But that is in the hands
of others besides ourselves. And we must be prepared for a long
continued conflict. It will require patience as well as bravery,
the will to endure as well as the will to resist.

I wish it were possible to convince others with words of what
we now find it necessary to say with guns and planes: Armed hostility
is futile. Our resources are equal to any challenge. Because we
fight for values and we fight for principles, rather than territory
or colonies, our patience and our determination are unending.

Once this is clear, then it should also be clear that the only
path for reasonable men is the path of peaceful settlement.

Such peace demands an independent South Viet-Nam--securely
guaranteed and able to shape its own relationships to all others--free
from outside interference--tied to no alliance--a military base
for no other country.

These are the essentials of any final settlement.

We will never be second in the search for such a peaceful settlement
in Viet-Nam.

There may be many ways to this kind of peace: in discussion
or negotiation with the governments concerned; in large groups
or in small ones; in the reaffirmation of old agreements or their
strengthening with new ones.

We have stated this position over and over again, fifty times
and more, to friend and foe alike. And we remain ready, with this
purpose, for unconditional discussions.

And until that bright and necessary day of peace we will try
to keep conflict from spreading. We have no desire to see thousands
die in battle--Asians or Americans. We have no desire to devastate
that which the people of North Viet-Nam have built with toil and
sacrifice. We will use our power with restraint and with all the
wisdom that we can command.

But we will use it.

This war, like most wars, is filled with terrible irony. For
what do the people of North Viet-Nam want? They want what their
neighbors also desire: food for their hunger; health for their
bodies; a chance to learn; progress for their country; and an
end to the bondage of material misery. And they would find all
these things far more readily in peaceful association with others
than in the endless course of battle.

A COOPERATIVE EFFORT FOR DEVELOPMENT

These countries of southeast Asia are homes for millions of
impoverished people. Each day these people rise at dawn and struggle
through until the night to wrestle existence from the soil. They
are often wracked by disease, plagued by hunger, and death comes
at the early age of 40.

Stability and peace do not come easily in such a land. Neither
independence nor human dignity will ever be won, though, by arms
alone. It also requires the work of peace. The American people
have helped generously in times past in these works. Now there
must be a much more massive effort to improve the life of man
in that conflict-torn corner of our world.

The first step is for the countries of southeast Asia to associate
themselves in a greatly expanded cooperative effort for development.
We would hope that North Viet-Nam would take its place in the
common effort just as soon as peaceful cooperation is possible.

The United Nations is already actively engaged in development
in this area. As far back as 1961 I conferred with our authorities
in Viet-Nam in connection with their work there. And I would hope
tonight that the Secretary General of the United Nations could
use the prestige of his great office, and his deep knowledge of
Asia, to initiate, as soon as possible, with the countries of
that area, a plan for cooperation in increased development.

For our part I will ask the Congress to join in a billion dollar
American investment in this effort as soon as it is underway.

And I would hope that all other industrialized countries, including
the Soviet Union, will join in this effort to replace despair
with hope, and terror with progress.

The task is nothing less than to enrich the hopes and the existence
of more than a hundred million people. And there is much to be
done.

The vast Mekong River can provide food and water and power
on a scale to dwarf even our own TVA.

The wonders of modern medicine can be spread through villages
where thousands die every year from lack of care.

Schools can be established to train people in the skills that
are needed to manage the process of development.

And these objectives, and more, are within the reach of a cooperative
and determined effort.

I also intend to expand and speed up a program to make available
our farm surpluses to assist in feeding and clothing the needy
in Asia. We should not allow people to go hungry and wear rags
while our own warehouses overflow with an abundance of wheat and
corn, rice and cotton.

So I will very shortly name a special team of outstanding,
patriotic, distinguished Americans to inaugurate our participation
in these programs. This team will be headed by Mr. Eugene Black,
the very able former President of the World Bank.

In areas that are still ripped by conflict, of course development
will not be easy. Peace will be necessary for final success. But
we cannot and must not wait for peace to begin this job.

THE DREAM OF WORLD ORDER

This will be a disorderly planet for a long time. In Asia,
as elsewhere, the forces of the modern world are shaking old ways
and uprooting ancient civilizations. There will be turbulence
and struggle and even violence. Great social change--as we see
in our own country now--does not always come without conflict.

We must also expect that nations will on occasion be in dispute
with us. It may be because we are rich, or powerful; or because
we have made some mistakes; or because they honestly fear our
intentions. However, no nation need ever fear that we desire their
land, or to impose our will, or to dictate their institutions.

But we will always oppose the effort of one nation to conquer
another nation.

We will do this because our own security is at stake.

But there is more to it than that. For our generation has a
dream. It is a very old dream. But we have the power and now we
have the opportunity to make that dream come true.

For centuries nations have struggled among each other. But
we dream of a world where disputes are settled by law and reason.
And we will try to make it so.

For most of history men have hated and killed one another in
battle. But we dream of an end to war. And we will try to make
it so.

For all existence most men have lived in poverty, threatened
by hunger. But we dream of a world where all are fed and charged
with hope. And we will help to make it so.

The ordinary men and women of North Viet-Nam and South Viet-Nam--of
China and India--of Russia and America--are brave people. They
are filled with the same proportions of hate and fear, of love
and hope. Most of them want the same things for themselves and
their families. Most of them do not want their sons to ever die
in battle, or to see their homes, or the homes of others, destroyed.

Well, this can be their world yet. Man now has the knowledge--always
before denied--to make this planet serve the real needs of the
people who live on it.

I know this will not be easy. I know how difficult it is for
reason to guide passion, and love to master hate. The complexities
of this world do not bow easily to pure and consistent answers.

But the simple truths are there just the same. We must all
try to follow them as best we can.

CONCLUSION

We often say how impressive power is. But I do not find it
impressive at all. The guns and the bombs, the rockets and the
warships, are all symbols of human failure. They are necessary
symbols. They protect what we cherish. But they are witness to
human folly.

A dam built across a great river is impressive.

In the countryside where I was born, and where I live, I have
seen the night illuminated, and the kitchens warmed, and the homes
heated, where once the cheerless night and the ceaseless cold
held sway. And all this happened because electricity came to our
area along the humming wires of the REA. Electrification of the
countryside--yes, that, too, is impressive.

A rich harvest in a hungry land is impressive.

The sight of healthy children in a classroom is impressive.

These--not mighty arms--are the achievements which the American
Nation believes to be impressive.

And, if we are steadfast, the time may come when all other
nations will also find it so.

Every night before I turn out the lights to sleep I ask myself
this question: Have I done everything that I can do to unite this
country? Have I done everything I can to help unite the world,
to try to bring peace and hope to all the peoples of the world?
Have I done enough?

Ask yourselves that question in your homes--and in this hall
tonight. Have we, each of us, all done all we could? Have we done
enough?

We may well be living in the time foretold many years ago when
it was said: "I call heaven and earth to record this day
against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing
and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed
may live."

This generation of the world must choose: destroy or build,
kill or aid, hate or understand.

We can do all these things on a scale never dreamed of before.

Well, we will choose life. In so doing we will prevail over
the enemies within man, and over the natural enemies of all mankind.

To Dr. Eisenhower and Mr. Garland, and this great institution,
Johns Hopkins, I thank you for this opportunity to convey my thoughts
to you and to the American people.

Good night.

NOTE: The President spoke at 9 p.m. in Shriver Hall Auditorium
at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md. In his opening words,
he referred to Charles S. Garland, Chairman of the University's
Board of Trustees, and Senators Daniel B. Brewster and Joseph
D. Tydings of Maryland.

Later he referred to Dr. Milton Eisenhower, President of Johns
Hopkins University, and Eugene Black, former President of the
World Bank and adviser to the President on southeast Asia social
and economic development.

Earlier, on the same day, the White House released the text
of the statements, made to the press in the Theater at the White
House, by George W. Ball, Under Secretary of State, Robert S.
McNamara, Secretary of Defense, and McGeorge Bundy, Special Assistant
to the President, which defined the context of the President's
speech.